Two palace maids received the order.
Not long after, the two palace maids forcibly dragged out the disheveled Luo Yang and threw her before Mo Lingxi and Zi Cheng.
Luo Yang quickly wrapped herself in her clothes, her face pale, biting her lip, crying heartbrokenly.
Mo Lingxi and Zi Cheng didn't even glance at her, finding her crying even more hypocritical and disgusting.
"Luo Yang, who sent you into the palace?" Mo Lingxi asked sternly.
Luo Yang trembled and said pitifully, "Your Highness Prince Ming Rui, you are wronging me. I truly don't know what happened. I woke up here. I beg Your Highness Prince Ming Rui to uphold justice for me."
Success or failure hinges on this moment!
If she could enter the palace as a consort, what good life wouldn't she have in the future? Even if Sheng Lengshuang married Prince Ming Rui, she would have to obediently kneel at her feet.
Seeing that she refused to tell the truth, Mo Lingxi directly ordered people to drag Luo Yang out for torture until she told the truth.
Before Luo Yang could beg for mercy, her mouth was gagged by the palace maids, and she was forcibly dragged out for torture.
"Uncle, this incident has served as a warning," Zi Cheng said with a solemn expression. "The other party could sneak Luo Yang into my bed silently. Next time, they could silently kill me."
He wasn't afraid of death, but he couldn't be killed for no reason. More importantly, once he died, the Eastern Jin dynasty would inevitably fall into chaos.
Mo Lingxi patted his shoulder and began a thorough search of the Yangxin Hall. "Which palace attendants were on duty tonight?"
"Reporting to Your Highness Prince Ming Rui, they are all the attendants who usually serve His Majesty," the chief eunuch replied.
Mo Lingxi: "Drag them all out and interrogate them severely."
The chief eunuch responded with a 'yes' and retreated to carry out the task.
"Uncle, are you suspecting that the people around me have been bought?" Zi Cheng asked.
Mo Lingxi said he couldn't rule out that possibility. "Another possibility is that the other party is a spy who has been lurking by your side for a long time and acted when their master gave the order."
Zi Cheng narrowed his eyes. "It seems this matter is not that simple."
Mo Lingxi searched but found no suspicious spots. "Your Majesty, you should temporarily not stay in the Yangxin Hall. Also, you should be more careful in the future."
Zi Cheng also understood that he could only be more careful now. "Uncle, to be honest, if I weren't the Crown Prince, I really wouldn't want to be emperor. What's so good about being emperor? All day long, it's nothing but schemes and power struggles, not a moment of peace."
He really didn't understand what those people were thinking, fighting to the death for this position.
Mo Lingxi: "Do your duty while in your position."
Zi Cheng rolled his eyes at him. "Uncle says it easily. It's not you who is the emperor."
Mo Lingxi couldn't be bothered with his sulking nephew, pondering who was behind this incident and why they hadn't killed His Majesty.
Everything about this matter was strange and out of place.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness Prince Ming Rui, Luo Yang is willing to confess," a palace maid walked in and bowed.
Zi Cheng: "Bring her in."
Not long after, Luo Yang, covered in blood, was dragged in by two imperial guards.
Zi Cheng: "Luo Yang, tell us how you entered the palace."
Luo Yang experienced a fate worse than death and regretted scheming against the current emperor. She thought that by using her reputation to scheme against His Majesty, she would surely succeed and become a palace consort. Who knew it wasn't what she had imagined at all.
"I... a man who looked very ordinary and smiled with squinted eyes helped me enter the palace. He said I only needed to do as I thought, and he would handle the rest."
Zi Cheng and Mo Lingxi exchanged a glance. A man who smiled with squinted eyes?
"Did he not mention any conditions?" Zi Cheng asked.
Luo Yang said the other party had not made any demands, only that he would help her achieve her wish. At the time, she was focused on entering the palace as a consort and didn't think much before asking for the man's help.
"Why did you want to enter the palace as a consort?" Mo Lingxi asked.
Luo Yang: "Since I witnessed the luxury of the imperial palace last time, I haven't forgotten it, and that's why I wanted to enter the palace as a consort."
After experiencing the imperial palace, she realized how ridiculous her previous thoughts were. At that time, she thought, how wonderful it would be if she could enter the palace as a consort.
Mo Lingxi frowned with disgust. He had thought someone had instigated Luo Yang, but it turned out she was overambitious, thinking she could enter the palace as a consort with her looks. It was simply laughable.
Afterward, Luo Yang confessed everything she knew. She was carried into the palace in a small sedan chair. She didn't know how the other party operated, only that she was taken directly to the Yangxin Hall.
When she saw His Majesty, she eagerly climbed onto him, and then those things happened.
"I want to see Sheng Lengshuang, I want to see her!"
Mo Lingxi was reluctant to let Luo Yang see Sheng Lengshuang, but considering Sheng Lengshuang's situation, he sent someone to invite Sheng Lengshuang over to avoid any unforeseen events due to prolonged delay.
When Sheng Lengshuang arrived, she heard a familiar woman's crying from a distance.
Upon closer inspection, it was indeed Luo Yang.
"Sheng Lengshuang!"
Luo Yang saw Sheng Lengshuang arrive, and old and new grudges surged in her heart. "Sheng Lengshuang! It's you, you caused me to end up like this!"
"Back in Shilipo Village, I shouldn't have let you go!"
Shilipo Village again.
Sheng Lengshuang frowned and looked at Luo Yang. What nonsense was this woman talking about? Didn't they meet at a party? It was only because Luo Yang was petty and jealous that she constantly caused trouble and schemed against her.
Luo Yang truly hated Sheng Lengshuang to the bone. In her opinion, if she hadn't kindly spared Sheng Lengshuang's life back then and killed her earlier, none of the subsequent events would have happened, and she wouldn't have ended up in this state.
"Back in Shilipo Village, if our family hadn't been kind, you would have been expelled from the village long ago and died somewhere unknown. Yet you repeatedly harmed me..."
Under her tearful accusations, she was portrayed as a pitiable, helpless, and weak victim, while Sheng Lengshuang was the heartless and unrighteous abuser.
Sheng Lengshuang grew more confused as she listened. She glanced at Mo Lingxi twice. Was she really living in Shilipo Village since childhood, and did she know Mo Lingxi in Shilipo Village?
Why was there such a big discrepancy with her memories?
"Are you finished?" she asked Luo Yang with a completely calm expression.
Her composed demeanor made Luo Yang feel like she was hitting cotton, her anger unable to find an outlet. "Sheng Lengshuang, I curse you to die a horrible death!"
Sheng Lengshuang didn't show the slightest emotional fluctuation. "If curses were useful, then what would be the point of laws? Everyone in the world facing injustice would just curse."
'Puchi.'
Zi Cheng couldn't help but chuckle. He covered his mouth and said, "Little Aunt, don't mind me. Please continue, please continue!"
As expected, his little aunt was still the most formidable.
Sheng Lengshuang didn't correct the current emperor's address. She glanced at the furious Luo Yang. "You invited me here in the middle of the night just to show me how pathetic and miserable you are?"
"To be honest, I don't pity you at all. You brought this upon yourself."